Why Mental Delusions Are Hard To Break

Understanding the psychology and the perspective of the subjects that you engage is is critical to being successful as a crisis negotiation (That's empathy!). The following article is from the great PsyBlog.

Well-known mental delusions include Capgras syndrome, in which a person thinks all their loved ones have been replaced by impostors.

The reason people find it difficult to break free of mental delusions or hallucinations is down to faulty ‘reality testing’, one psychologist argues.

Well-known mental delusions include Capgras syndrome, in which a person thinks all their loved ones have been replaced by impostors.

Hallucinations and delusions can also be caused by serious mental health problems like schizophrenia.

Part of the brain normally checks strange ideas against reality.

However, said Professor Philip Gerrans, the study’s author, this doesn’t always happen:

“Normally this ‘reality testing’ in the brain monitors a ‘story telling’ system which generates a narrative of people’s experience.

A simple example of normal reality testing is the person who gets a headache, immediately thinks they might have a brain tumor, then dismisses that thought and moves on.

Read the full article [HERE].